forster's howards end

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Forster's Howards EndT. Douglas Doyle aa University of South Florida , USAPublished online: 09 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: T. Douglas Doyle (1994) Forster's Howards End, The Explicator,52:4, 226-228, DOI: 10.1080/00144940.1994.9938785

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first time” (595) in an atmosphere of natural fecundity. Her name sug- gests that in her moment of love, “at the borderland of life’s mystery” (599, her identity becomes one with the unfolding reproductive power of nature itself and part of the “glistening green world” which, by the story’s close, the sun had made “a place of gems” (595).

-CHRISTOPHER BAKER, Armstrong State College, Savannah

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I thank Dr. Philip Malnassy for providing botanical information.

WORKS CITED

Chopin, Kate. The Complete Works of Kaie Chopin. Ed. Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge:

Dyer, Joyce Coyne. “Epiphanies Through Nature in the Stories of Kate Chopin.” Uniger-

Jackson, Benjamin Daydon. A Glossary of Botanic Terms. 4th ed. London: Duckworth,

Plowden, C. Chicheley. A Manual of Plant Names. 2nd ed. New York: Philosophical Li-

Seyersted, Pe:. Kate Chopin: A Crirical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U P,

Louisiana State U P, 1969.

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Forster’s HOWARDS END

As most critics know well enough, Forster’s Howards End is riddled with allusions to the author’s “Only connect . . .” motto; the “rainbow bridge,” the Wych Elm tree, and of course, Howards End itself are some of the most prominent of these connective images.’ However, to my knowledge, no one has investigated the strands of rope and string imagery that permeate Forster’s novel. This string imagery is not just a subtle s!m- bolic device but reflects the dramatic tension of the entire text; to overlook it is to neglect a fundamental insight into the novel’s composition.

Few would argue that Howards End‘s Wilcox and Bast families each represent opposing, equally unsatisfactory ideologies, which are only uni- fied through the Schlegel sisters. The string imagery that surrounds these three character groups reflects this fundamental conflict and its ultimate resolution.

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The Wilcox family is enveloped in dangling string imagery. For exam- ple, Margaret wonders if Mrs. Wilcox is “one of those unsatisfactory peo- ple . . . who dangle intimacy and then withdraw it” (61).2 Later, when Helen and Margaret learn that their protkgi Bast has lost his job, they ask Mr. Wilcox to “pull some strings” and find him another. Most significant is Forster’s odd and oft-repeated description of the Wilcox family: “they knew so well what to do, whom to send for; their hands were on all the ropes” (81). In fact, not only are descriptions of the Wilcoxes themselves replete with disconnected, pendulous string imagery, but everyone in the family, Henry in particular, is able to manipulate porters, chauffeurs, and housekeepers, as if these servants were puppets on a string.

Forster depicts the all-but-hopeless Bast family in thread images that suggest disunity and lack of control. Jacky, for instance, is described by Margaret as “all strings and bell-pulls” (39). Likewise, Jacky’s husband Leonard is awkwardly described as unable to “string famous names to- gether in a sequence” (30). Together, the two are referred to as “hangers- on” of Helen’s (177). Much more obvious, however, is Leonard’s predica- ment. This character is constantly enmeshed in preposterous string-laden complications: he is either “pulled downhill,” “tied down,” or “in a tangle” so often that he eventually wishes just to “hang it all!” Even Helen Schlegel’s efforts to “cut the rope that fastened Leonard to the Earth” come to naught; “Woven of bitter experience [the ropes] resisted her” (198). Indeed, the threads of Leonard’s life are not just dangling, they are completely askew.

While the Wilcoxes and Basts are associated with disconnected string imagery, Forster identifies the Schlegel sisters with images of sewing and weaving. Just as the Schlegels are ultimately the only solid tie between the Wilcoxes and the Basts, their association with sewing and weaving reflects their unifying position in the text. In fact, they discuss their understanding of life using a weaving analogy:

“Tell me; oh yes; did you say money is the warp of the world?” “Yes.” “Then what is the woof?” “Very much what one chooses, said Margaret. “It’s something that isn’t money-one can’t say more.” (102).

Here the Schlegels express their opinions about the importance of money in the “fabric of society.” Unlike the Wilcoxes, who master only the busi- ness aspect of life (and thus find themselves “dangling”), the Schlegel sisters realize that the ideal lifestyle is not tailored out of money alone. It must be woven together with “something that isn’t money” in order to be of any real use.

Ironically, Forster also associates Leonard Bast with sewing and connec-

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tive thread imagery. The OED informs us that the name “Bast” is related to the word “baste” (to sew together loosely with large, loose st i tche~).~ Although, on one hand, this name suggests a sloppy and unstable ex- istence, which is reflected in Bast’s overly bookish world view, the reader can also recognize both in Leonard Bast himself and in the etymology of his name the first makings of a connected life. Just as Leonard Bast makes a desperate, albeit misdirected, attempt to unite the poetry and the prose of life, Forster’s allusion to sewing in his name is a deliberate attempt to evoke a sense of unification and coherence in this character.

Lastly, at the end of the novel, amidst all sorts of connections, unifica- tions, and “straightenings of tangles,” the author conjoins the motifs of sewing and “only connect” most adroitly. Here is the scene: Mr. Wilcox and Evie are holding hands in the dining room; all is quiet and stable. Wl- coxes, Schlegels, and Basts are all united at Howards End. Margaret en- ters, and characteristically, “Averse to wasting her time, she went on s,ew- ing” among the factions that she has unified (269).

Contrary to Duke Maskell’s assertions that Howards End is a text com- posed of “dead language,” whose imagery is “cliche,” “arbitrary,” and has “no roots in a properly rendered dramatic ~i tuat ion,”~ we recognize that Forster’s string imagery is essential to his text. Indeed, without it, how could we ever manage to successfully tie the novel together?

-T. DOUGLAS DOYLE, Universily of South Florida

NOTES

1. For a more thorough treatment of major images and symbols in Howards End, see George H . Thomson, “Theme and Symbol in Howards End,” Modern Ficfion Sludies 7 (l%l): 229-42.

2. This and all other page references in this note refer to E. M. Forster, Howards End (New York: Bantam, 1985).

3. The Oxford English Dictioniary, 2nd ed., 1989. 4. Maskell, Duke, “Style and Symbolism in Howards End,” Essays in Crilicism, 19. 3

(1%3): 292-307.

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